Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
Institute of Aerosol and Sensor Technology, Swiss University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, 5210, Windisch, Switzerland.
Commun Biol. 2019 Mar 5;2:90. doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0332-7. eCollection 2019.
Aircraft emissions contribute to local and global air pollution. Health effects of particulate matter (PM) from aircraft engines are largely unknown, since controlled cell exposures at relevant conditions are challenging. We examined the toxicity of non-volatile PM (nvPM) emissions from a CFM56-7B26 turbofan, the world's most used aircraft turbine using an unprecedented exposure setup. We combined direct turbine-exhaust sampling under realistic engine operating conditions and the Nano-Aerosol Chamber for In vitro Toxicity to deposit particles onto air-liquid-interface cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) at physiological conditions. We evaluated acute cellular responses after 1-h exposures to diluted exhaust from conventional or alternative fuel combustion. We show that single, short-term exposures to nvPM impair bronchial epithelial cells, and PM from conventional fuel at ground-idle conditions is the most hazardous. Electron microscopy of soot reveals varying reactivity matching the observed cellular responses. Stronger responses at lower mass concentrations suggest that additional metrics are necessary to evaluate health risks of this increasingly important emission source.
飞机排放物导致了当地和全球的空气污染。飞机发动机产生的颗粒物 (PM) 的健康影响在很大程度上是未知的，因为在相关条件下进行受控细胞暴露是具有挑战性的。我们使用前所未有的暴露设置，研究了 CFM56-7B26 涡扇发动机非挥发性颗粒物 (nvPM) 排放的毒性，该发动机是世界上使用最广泛的飞机涡轮发动机。我们结合了在实际发动机运行条件下直接对涡轮机排气进行采样，以及使用纳米气溶胶室在体外毒性条件下将颗粒物沉积到人类支气管上皮细胞 (BEAS-2B) 的气液界面培养物上。我们评估了在生理条件下，经过 1 小时稀释后的废气暴露后，对短期急性细胞反应的影响，废气来自传统燃料或替代燃料的燃烧。结果表明，单次短期 nvPM 暴露会损害支气管上皮细胞，而地面怠速时来自传统燃料的 PM 危害最大。对烟尘的电子显微镜观察显示，与观察到的细胞反应相匹配的反应性变化。在较低的质量浓度下出现更强的反应表明，需要额外的指标来评估这种日益重要的排放源的健康风险。
